Migratory Movements of Peregrine Falcons Falco Peregrinus, Breeding on the Yamal Peninsula, Russia

Ornis Hungarica 2018. 26(2): 222–231. DOI: 10.1515/orhu-2018-0030 Migratory movements of Peregrine Falcons Falco peregrinus, breeding on the Yamal Peninsula, Russia Vasiliy SOKOLOV1, Aleksandr SOKOLOV2 & Andrew DIXON3* Received: October 30, 2018 – Revised: November 11, 2018 – Accepted: December 21, 2018 This is a contribution submitted to the Proceedings of the World Conference on the Peregrine Falcon in Buda- pest in September 2017. Sokolov, V., Sokolov, A. & Dixon, A. 2018. Migratory movements of Peregrine Falcons Falco peregrinus, breeding on the Yamal Peninsula, Russia. – Ornis Hungarica 26(2): 222–231. DOI: 10.1515/orhu-2018-0030 Abstract We describe the migration pathways of 12 Peregrine Falcons Falco peregrinus cali dus breeding on the Yamal Peninsula, Russia. Overall, we tracked 30 complete (17 autumn and 13 spring) and 5 incomplete seasonal migration routes. Winter ranges extended from the Atlantic coast of southern Portugal in the west to Kish Island in the Arabian Gulf in the east, and from Krasnodar in southern Russia in the north to South Sudan. Eight birds were tracked to their wintering sites, with migration pathways ranging from 3,557 km to 8,114 km, taking 14 to 61 days to complete. Birds spent an average of 190 days in their winter ranges (range 136 to 212 days, N = 14), and departure on spring migration took place in April. The home ranges used by wintering Peregrines were varied including coastal habitats, agricultural landscapes, savannah, desert and an urban city. Departure from breeding areas took place in September with birds returning in May. Peregrines exhibited a high degree of fidelity to their winter ranges, with four birds tracked over three successive migrations until the 2012 breeding season. Keywords: migration pathway, birds of prey, range fidelity Összefoglalás Oroszországban, a Jamal-félszigeten költő vándorsólymok Falco peregrinus calidus közül 12 egyed vonulási útvonalát írtuk le. Összesen 30 teljes (17 őszi és 13 tavaszi) és 5 részleges vonulási útvonalat kö- vettünk. A telelőterületek nyugaton Portugália atlanti partjaitól, keleten a Perzsa-öbölben található Kish-szigetig, valamint északon az oroszországi Krasznodarszktól, délen Dél-Szudánig terjedtek ki. Nyolc madarat követtünk a telelőterületéig, ezek vonulási útvonala 3557–8114 km között változott, amit 14–61 nap alatt tettek meg. A madarak átlagosan 190 napot töltöttek telelőterületükön (136–212 nap, n = 14), majd a tavaszi vonulást áprilisban kezdték meg. A telelő vándorsólymok költőterülete változó volt, beleértve tengerparti, mezőgazdasági, sivatagos és szavannás élőhelyeket, valamint egy várost. A költőterületet a madarak szeptemberben hagyták el, és májusban tértek vissza. A vándorsólymok jelentős hűséget mutattak a telelőterületük iránt, amit 4 – a 2012-es költési idő- szakig 3 vonulási szezonon keresztül követett – madár bizonyít. Kulcsszavak: vonulási útvonal, ragadozómadár, területhűség 1 Institute of Plant and Animal Ecology, Ural Division Russian Academy of Sciences, 2028 Marta Street, Eka terinburg, 620144, Russia 2 Ecological Research Station of the Institute of Plant and Animal Ecology, Ural Division Russian Academy of Sciences, 21 Zelenaya Gorka, Labytnangi, YamaloNenetski District, 629400, Russia 3 Emirates Falconers’ Club, PO Box 47716, Al Mamoura Building (A), Muroor Road, Abu Dhabi, UAE, email: [email protected] * corresponding author V. Sokolov, A. Sokolov & A. Dixon 223 Introduction Holarctic Peregrines Falco peregrinus breeding at northern latitudes are migratory, including F. p. tundrius and northern populations of F. p. anatum in the Nearctic, and F. p. calidus along with northern populations of F. p. peregrinus and F. p. japonensis in the Palearctic (White et al. 2002, 2013, 2018). In contrast to the Nearctic, little is known about the northern distribu- tion limits of wintering Peregrines across the Palearctic. The Eurasian breeding range of the F. p. calidus subspecies extends from the Kanin Peninsula eastwards through Russia to Arctic Yakutia, where they intergrade with F. p. japonensis/harterti (White et al. 2013). It has long been known that migratory Peregrines from Northern Eurasia can spend the winter in Europe and North Africa (Cramp & Simmons 1980), sub-Saharan Africa to the Eastern Cape (S33.73, E26.42 (Hd.dd); Jenkins & Stephenson 1999), the Middle East (Jen- nings 2010), Central Asia (Dementiev & Gladkov 1952), the Indian subcontinent (Naoro- ji 2006) and South-East Asia (White & Bruce 1986), reaching as far south as Christmas Is- land (S10.5, E105.66) (Carter & Silcocks 2010). However, relatively little data exists on the connection between breeding and wintering areas for migratory Peregrines in Eurasia. Ga- nusevich et al. (2004) successfully tracked two adult females from their breeding ranges on the Kola Peninsula, Russia to wintering areas in Western Europe, while Peregrines from the Taimyr Peninsula wintered in Central Asia (Eastham et al. 2000). More recently, systematic tracking of Arctic Eurasian Peregrines has shed further light on migratory connectivity, with birds wintering in SE Asia originating from breeding regions in northern Yakutia (Dixon et al. 2012), those wintering in the Indian Sub-continent originating from the Khatanga Gulf region (Dixon et al. 2017), while those reaching the Middle East and Arabia came primarily from the Yamal, Gydan and western Taimyr Peninsulas (Sokolov et al. 2016). In this study, we describe the multi-annual migration movements and wintering locations of F. p. calidus Peregrines deployed with satellite-received transmitters at their nest sites on the Yamal Peninsula, Russia. Methods This study is based on data received from Peregrines breeding in the low-shrub tundra zone of the Yamal Peninsula, Russia (N 68.22, E 69.15), in an area of maritime valleys, low hills and tundra marshes with patches of willow thickets within a network of lakes, rivers and streams. Peregrines used river or lake sand cliffs up to 40 m high as nesting sites (see de- tails in Sokolov et al. 2014). In June 2009, we fitted 18g solar PTTs (Microwave Telemetry Inc., MD, USA) to 10 adult Peregrines (9 females and 1 male; including a breeding pair) at nine breeding territo- ries within a 78 km2 polygon. In August 2010, we fitted similar PTTs to two juvenile males prior to fledging; these were the offspring of two females deployed with PTTs in the previ- ous year. All PTTs were attached to the birds by a Teflon ribbon backpack harness. The Tef- lon ribbon strand was attached at its midpoint to the anterior anchor of the PTT and the two ends were tied with a flat-knot to crossover the sternum, with the trailing ends attached to 224 ORNIS HUNGARICA 2018. 26(2) the posterior anchor points of the PTT. The PTT was mounted high along the dorsal midline with space to fit two fingers under the PTT unit (see Dixonet al. 2016). We received telemetry data from the Argos satellite tracking system (CLS, France). We used the Douglas Argos Filter Algorithm (‘DAR’ filter) designed to retains points, which correspond to a realistic rate of movement and which do not form tight angles (Douglas et al. 2012, Wikelski & Kays 2017). We only included Argos data of ≥ LC1, removing dupli- cate timestamps, and set a maximum realistic movement speed between locations as 100 km/h, while the internal angle between successive locations was set at 15°. We defined the start of migration as the first day the bird began continuous movement -to wards the north or south. In two cases, birds moved to a staging area prior to initiation of long-distance migration. Arrival at winter and breeding ranges was defined as the first day the Peregrines movements became localized. Average speed of migration was calculated as the whole distance from start to end divided by duration, while average flight speed during migration was calculated as the distance between successive location points divided by time between such locations. We did not calculate migration speeds for birds which stopped transmitting during migration. We identified stopover sites when birds travelled less than 50 km between two subsequent locations. Results Overall, we tracked 30 complete (17 autumn and 13 spring) and 5 incomplete seasonal migrations by 12 (9 adult females, 1 adult male and 2 juvenile males) Peregrines from breeding sites within 200 km2 on the Yamal Peninsula of the Russian Arctic (Figure 1). Four birds were followed over 3 years covering three complete autumn and spring migrations. Typically, Peregrines departed on autumn migration during September, taking from two weeks to two months (mean = 25 days) to cover distances from 3,000 km to 8,500 km to reach their wintering areas (Table 1). Spring migration from the wintering areas started in April and birds arrived at their breeding sites in May. On average, Peregrines spent 190 days in the wintering area and 117 days in the breeding area. The autumn departure dates of four Table 1. Dates of the migration events for the Peregrine Falcons in 2009–2012 1. táblázat A vándorsólymok vonulásának dátumai 2009–2012 között Seasonal event N Mean Median SD Range Autumn departure 20 14 of Sept 13 of Sept 9 28 Aug – 28 Sep Arrival at winter range 17 11 of Oct 11 of Oct 18 17 Sept – 26 Nov Spring departure 14 19 of Apr 23 of Apr 8 4 – 29 Apr Arrival at breeding range 13 16 of May 15 of May 5 10 – 28 May Duration of autumn migration (days) 17 26.8 24.5 11.7 14 – 61 Duration of spring migration (days) 13 25.8 23 8.4 14 – 47 Speed of autumn migration (km/day) 17 222.6 215.43 57.5 0.4–1072.6 Speed of spring migration (km/day) 13 239.6 214.6 77.8 0.6–1205.2 V. Sokolov, A. Sokolov & A. Dixon 225 Figure 1. Migration of Peregrine Falcons breeding on the Yamal Peninsula. Number is ID of different birds. 90876 and 90883 are male and female respectively from a breeding pair.

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